Copying records provides significant time savings, allowing you to quickly create a large number of similar object records. When copying from objects with child or grandchild relationships, you can often choose to copy the entire hierarchy of records. For example, the Product object is the parent of the Marketing Campaign object. When copying the CholeCap product record, you can copy its marketing campaigns as well, meaning that the single copy action could create multiple new object records: one product and several related marketing campaigns. Copying a single record is sometimes referred to as “shallow” copying, whereas copying a structure of related records is called “deep” copy.
How to Copy Records
To copy a single object record (shallow copy):
- Navigate to the object record’s detail page. This may be in Admin or in a custom tab.
- Choose Copy Record from the action menu. This action is not available if the record’s object type is inactive.
- Vault opens the details page for the new record. Many fields will default to the values on the original record. You can edit these as needed.
- When finished editing, click Save.
To copy a hierarchy of object records (deep copy):
- Perform the steps for a single record copy.
- If child records exist and hierarchical copy is enabled for the parent object relationship, a pop-up opens. The pop-up displays the objects which will have records copied.
- Select the Copy Related Records checkbox to copy the hierarchy of records identified in the pop-up.
- RIM Only: Select the Apply modified values on this record to related records to choose whether or not to copy all changed field values to all self-related descendant copies. This option is only available when Copy Record is performed on self-referencing EDL objects, and is grayed out if Copy Related Records is unchecked.
- Click Save to complete the action.
- Vault validates and copies the highest level record and child records asynchronously. When complete, Vault sends a confirmation email. If there are any validation issues (non-unique name, etc.), the email will include a CSV file with details on the failed copy actions.
An Admin must enable hierarchical copy for the parent object record in order for you to perform a hierarchical copy.
Note: There is currently a limitation when deep copying records that contain reference fields to sibling objects (which have the same parent in the hierarchy). For example, when deep copying a Submission in RIM Submissions, Vault will not copy related Submission Language, Submission Inactive Ingredient, and Submission Clinical Study records when the Submission Country, Submission Product, and Submission Indication fields are populated on the records, respectively.
Field Defaulting
Vault defaults field values on the new record whenever possible, but fields will be blank or default to a different value in some situations:
- A picklist field on the original record that points to a picklist value that is now inactive
- An object reference field on the original record that points to an object record that is now inactive.
- An object reference field on the original record that points to an object record that you do not have access to through Dynamic Access Control
- A system-managed field, like Created By or Lifecycle
- A field that requires a unique value
- Status field, which defaults to Active for objects that do not use lifecycles and the lifecycle’s starting state for those that do
Related Permissions & Access Control
To copy a record, your security profile must grant Create permission on the object. For deep copy, you must have Create permission on all child or grandchild objects for which you’re copying records. If you do not have this permission on the child object, the deep copy action cannot copy records for the grandchild object.
Additionally, Vault honors Atomic Security on relationships when executing a deep copy. See example scenarios below.
If any objects within the hierarchy use Dynamic Access Control, this also affects whether you’re able to copy and how deep copying will work. You must have at least the Viewer role on a record for shallow copy, or on the top-level record in a deep copy.
In deep copy, you don’t need to have any role on child or grandchild records. If you do have at least the Viewer role, Vault will put you into the Owner role on the new records you create. If you do not have a role on the child or grandchild records, you can still copy them. However, you won’t be able to see the new records, just as you cannot see the original records. In order to prevent a situation where you create records that nobody can see, Vault automatically assigns the Vault Owners group to the Owner role on those records.
Example Permission Set Scenarios
Scenario 1
| Object | Create Permission |
|---|---|
| Product | Yes |
| Marketing Campaign (Child) | Yes |
| Ad Buy (Grandchild) | Yes |
In this scenario, when Gladys copies a Product record, she can also copy the related Marketing Campaign and Ad Buy records.
Scenario 2
| Object | Create Permission |
|---|---|
| Product | Yes |
| Marketing Campaign (Child) | Yes |
| Ad Buy (Grandchild) | No |
In this scenario, Gladys cannot copy any child records.
Scenario 3
| Object | Create Permission |
|---|---|
| Product | Yes |
| Marketing Campaign (Child) | No |
| Ad Buy (Grandchild) | Yes |
In this scenario, Gladys cannot copy any child records.
Audit Trail
When you copy a record, the Event Description in the new record’s audit trail includes the source record’s name.